“The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow,” Snark, Fit 4, verse 1. In a letter to child-friend Maud Standen, 1877, Carroll wrote that “uffish” suggested to him “a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish.”

“Uffish” can also be a linguistic allusion to “oafish”, meaning boorish and unrefined, which is an interpretation that’s in harmony with what Carroll said the word brought to his mind.